1. Tony Kloss, Tyson Ford, Marisa Miller, Michael Pupillo
Coal
Tony Kloss, Tyson Ford, Marisa Miller, Michael Pupillo

2. Definition
Coal is a solid fossil fuel that was formed in several stages from the remains of land plants that were buried million years ago and then exposed to intense heat and pressure over those millions of years

3. Formation of Coal
Coal begins as an organic material known as peat (technically not coal though it can be used as fuel) and as pressure and heat are added over time this changes to more condensed, drier versions of coal with higher carbon contents.

4. How to produce energy with coal
Coal is mined and taken to a power plant
Pulverized and sent to boiler
Boiler heats steam, in turn spins turbine
Water is condensed and purified
Coal ash sent to ash disposal system or smoke stack.

7. Availability/ Leading Nations
There is over an estimated 861 billion tons of coal around the world. There are coal reserves in almost every country and 70 recoverable reserves around the globe. The top ten coal producing countries are China, USA, India, Indonesia, Australia, Russia, South Africa, Germany, Poland, and Kazakhstan.

8. Estimated Depletion Time
At the current rates of production, coal will last us about 112 years. Another estimation is that coal will last at least 100 years at current rates.

9. Net Energy Outcome
coal has an EROEI(energy returned on energy expended) of 80, which is relatively high. This means that it has a high return of energy per bit of coal burned.

10. Negative effects of coal

11. Advantages of Coal Affordable due to its stable price Easy to burn
Large abundance
Produces high energy upon its combustion process
Reliability

12. Disadvantages of Coal Tremendous amount of carbon emissions
Harmful by-products such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide,and sulfur dioxide
Cause pollution to the environment
Fast depleting because used inefficiently
Puts miners’ lives in danger

13. Coal Ash
Coal ash is the generic term referring to several very distinct materials produced when we combust coal to produce electricity. It could possibly be beneficial environmentally and economically when properly managed.

14. Misleading idea of “Clean Coal”
Clean coal is a concept for processes that mitigate carbon dioxide emissions using clean coal technology. One such process would be carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). But, CCS would use a lot of energy and would be very expensive. Coal can never be fully clean, so we should be focusing on alternatives.

15. China’s Coal addiction
China produces and consumes twice as much coal as the entire world combined! Not only is this bad for the environment, but it also heavily damages the health and wellbeing of China’s citizens.

16. Reference http://www.worldcoal.org/coal/where-is-coal-found/
Living in the environment AP Edition